Implications of Montessori method in Text-based and Enquiry-based

language teaching to adults

Amin ZargarianApplied Linguistics, MA

Kaplan International EnglishAdelaide, Australia

October 2016 – UECA PD Fest – The University of Adelaide

CONTENTS

- the purpose of the research and its significance

- the methodologies

- A brief account of previous research

- Enquiry-based teaching

- intersection of the three: text-based, enquiry-based and Montessori method

- Some examples

- Psychoanalysis, building knowledge, Montessori, and the conclusion

The purpose of the research and its significance

[…] “Unlike what most educators strictly believe thatMontessorian principles are purely appliable to childlearning, I have found sufficient observationalinstances to claim Montessori method can be appliedto adult language learning as well.

Methodologies

Summary of Text-based teaching: A recent research

“In text-based instruction students readauthentic texts to extend their discourseresources for the expression of ideas and forknowledge-building and analysing lexico-grammar in texts. The theoretical basis for thestudy was Halliday’s (1978) Language as a SocialSemiotic, Maton’s (2009) Knowledge Structures,Feez and Joyce’s (1998) Text-based SyllabusDesign.”

The practice of Writing and Reading in text-based language teaching

Martin and Rose (2012:140) argue that the issue ofenabling students to write and read on one side, andthe variety in students’ needs and capabilities toparticipate in classroom work on the other side,necessitates the application of a method as to form“ability groups”.

Multi-literacies in text-based teaching

Among the different literacy practices, Christiedefines multi-literacies as a “term intended torefer to a range of forms of literacy often found inthe one text, bringing together a variety ofsemiotic or meaning-making resources, visual,verbal and even auditory.” (2005:4)

Classroom discourses as texts

Hall (2001:77) defines classroomdiscourse as the interactionbetween the students and theteacher.

Teacher as text

Even during monitoring students’ group works,unlike what most teachers consider as stayingsilent, I entered students’ discussions, agreed,disagreed and allowed them to freely askquestions or further explanations by me.

Teaching “Generalizable” texts

Most people who live near our house, they are very familiar to us because as you find it India is a very cultureous country and the are always helping each other. So we usually find the neighbours always help the people in many ways as I have an experience with my neighbours, those who are living near to my house. I just remember that I lost my key of my house when I just arrived from my school, so they welcomed me, to stay for hoours… (Ref. Vid. Neighbour, 45’:33”).

Sample student script

Checking writing as a class

Comparing and contrasting texts, reconstructing texts,using flowcharts and paraphrasing are among themethods that Paltridge (2001:73-80) suggests for thelessons in which students engage themselves with texts ofvarious genres.

Teacher reading the text on the board: I enrolled in a course, whatever, commerce… do we need admission here?S6: Involve, involve in, an activity…T: Or you can say, I had admission to study commerce. Or I obtained admission to study commerce. What else?S3: One “D”T: One D, or double D?

Sample teacher-students script

Working with texts and reading for meaning

Inquiry-based Teaching

Inquiry requires more than simply answering questions or getting a right answer. It

espouses investigation, exploration, search, quest, research, pursuit, and study. It is

enhanced by involvement with a community of learners, each learning from the other in social interaction. – Kuklthau, Maniotes &

Caspari, 2007, p.2

Inquiry Strategies:

Immersing;

Identifying Concerns, Issues, and Dilemmas;

and Contextualizing

A little about Maria Montessori

Dr. Montessori put many different activities and othermaterials into the children’s environment but kept onlythose that engaged them. What she came to realise wasthat children who were placed in an environment whereactivities were designed to support their naturaldevelopment had the power to educate themselves.

Lessons from the Montessori Method

Maria Montessori states that “the true concept of liberty ispractically unknown to educators. They often have the sameconcept of liberty which animates a people in the hour ofrebellion from slavery, or perhaps, the conception of socialliberty, which although it is a more elevated idea is stillinvariably restricted. In other words, “Social Liberty” signifies apartial liberation, the liberation of a country, of a class, ofthought.”

Psychoanalytic implications of the pedagogy and knowledge-building

from students, the classroom and other

places

Videos…

Sample student email

Thank you!

Q & A

References

Christie, Frances. Language education in the primary years. uNSW Press, 2005.

Feez, Susan, and Helen Joyce. Text-based syllabus design. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, 1998.

Hall, Joan Kelly, and Meghan Walsh. "10. TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 22 (2002): 186-203.

Hall, Joan Kelly. "Differential teacher attention to student utterances: The construction of different opportunities for learning in the IRF." Linguistics and Education 9.3 (1997): 287-311.

Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood. Language and education. Ed. Jonathan Webster. Continuum, 2007.

Halliday, Michael AK. "Towards a language-based theory of learning." Linguistics and education 5.2 (1993): 93-116.

Halliday, Michael AK. "Language as social semiotics." London: Edward Arnold 1 (1978): 978.

Halliday, MAl. "k., & Hasan, R.(1976). Cohesion in English." L ondon: L ongman.

Martin, J. R. "Embedded literacy: Knowledge as meaning." Linguistics and Education 24.1 (2013): 23-37.

Martin, James R. "Genre and language learning: A social semiotic perspective." Linguistics and Education 20.1 (2009): 10-21.

Martin, J. R., and David Rose. "Designing literacy pedagogy: scaffolding democracy in the classroom." Continuing discourse on language: a functional perspective 1 (2005): 251-280.

Maton, Karl. "Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building." Linguistics and Education 24.1 (2013): 8-22.

Maton, Karl. "Cumulative and segmented learning: exploring the role of curriculum

structures in knowledge‐building." British Journal of Sociology of Education 30.1 (2009): 43-57.

Montessori, Maria. The montessori method. Transaction publishers, 2013.

Montessori, Maria. Dr. Montessori's own handbook. Schocken, 2011.

Lillard, Paula Polk, and Lynn Lillard Jessen. Montessori from the start: The child at home, from birth to age three. Schocken, 2008.

Paltridge, Brian. Genre and the language learning classroom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.

Rose, David, and J. R. Martin. Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School. Equinox, 2012.Rose, David, et al. "Scaffolding academic reading and writing at the Koori Centre." Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, The 32 (2003): 41.